Sandy in back of Easterners' minds as snow falls

A pedestrian walks through the snow in Washington Park on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. Parts of the New York region still cleaning up from Superstorm Sandy are bracing for a winter storm that's expected to blanket the Northeast with heavy snow Friday and Saturday. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
— AP

A pedestrian walks through the snow in Washington Park on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. Parts of the New York region still cleaning up from Superstorm Sandy are bracing for a winter storm that's expected to blanket the Northeast with heavy snow Friday and Saturday. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
/ AP

NEW YORK 
For many in the Northeast, the warnings were eerily familiar: Stock up on food and water. Stay off the roads. Be prepared to lose power.

The snowstorm sweeping through the region brought with it echoes of Superstorm Sandy, if not in intensity, in the dread of residents waiting to see what a new storm would bring.

The snowy, windy system that bore down on the Northeast on Friday was expected to drop 8 to 16 inches on the areas hardest hit by Sandy, a swath including New Jersey, New York City, Long Island and Connecticut.

A moderate storm surge was possible, too - but nothing like the waves that drowned much of the region in late October. Still, the prospect frightened Eddie Malone, a resident of Lindenhurst on Long Island whose house has been under renovation since Sandy's flooding wiped out his first floor.

"I'm not afraid of the snow - instead, the sea surge, it may be 7 feet," Malone said. "I think Sandy was 12 or 13 feet, but 7 feet scares me. ... We had no power for two weeks, and now I'm afraid we are going to lose it again."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to reassure folks, saying nothing like Sandy's surge was expected and stressing that no evacuations were being ordered, as they were before the superstorm.

"Sandy was a big storm that was devastating to a lot of people," he said. "I don't think this storm is going to do that."

In Fairfield, Conn., 65-year-old teacher Kathy Niznansky braced for potential flooding just about a month after she was able to return to her house near the beach. She worried about her sump pump failing if she loses power around high tide.

"If we have another one, sometimes I think maybe you should move," she said. "I think if I got water in my house from this storm, I think it would really do me in."

Hemlock Hardware in Fairfield did a brisk business on shovels, batteries, firewood, salt, sand and sleds. The store was getting a lot of calls for generators, too.

"There's definitely a change in response to storms now," said owner Scott Pesavento. "Power outages, I guess, is the first concern now when they hear `storm.'"

Al Terrile, a 69-year-old retired Southport resident, stocked up on batteries, a box of firewood and a light at the hardware store. He lost power for four days during Sandy.

"Maybe nothing will happen but just in case," he said. "It seems like our electrical system has suddenly turned fragile."

At the Jersey shore, where waves of 12 feet and moderate flooding were possible, Brick Township and Toms River issued voluntary evacuation orders for areas still recovering from Sandy.

In New York City's Staten Island, at a tent shelter set up for superstorm victims still living without power, volunteers used tarps and a makeshift drain to keep the bad weather out. Manager Donna Graziano said she feared the new storm would keep her regulars away.